The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

274 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
alone. The same design appears two or three times on the
arms, and even on the breast, though this part of the body
as well as the shoulders is more usually decorated with
several stars and rosettes. The backs of the hands are
tatued, quite irrespective of bravery or experience in
warfare ; in fact we have frequently had occasion to note
that a man with tatued hands is a wastrel or a conceited
braggart, of no account with Europeans or with his own
people. This wild and irresponsible system of tatu has
been accompanied by an inevitable degradation of the
designs. There is a considerable body of evidence to
show that the Sea Dayaks have borrowed much in their
Fig. 75.
Fig. 76.
arts and crafts from tribes who have been longer established
in Borneo ; but it must be confessed that in their decorative
art they have often improved upon their models ; their
bamboo carvings and their woven cloth are indeed " things
of beauty." But their tatu involves, not an intelligent
elaboration of the models, but a simplification and degrada-
tion, or at best an elaboration without significance. Figs. 1-6,
PI. 137, are examples of the Sea Dayaks tuang asu or
dog design. The figures show the dog design run mad,
and it is idle to attempt to interpret them, since in every
case the artists have given their individual fancies free
play. When the profession of the tatu-artist is hereditary,
and when the practice has for its object the